Herman Melville Quotes About Virtue

Quotes about: Virtue

• It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.

  Herman Melville

  Strong, Wall, Men

  Herman Melville (1892). “Moby Dick”, p.292

• In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.

  Herman Melville

  Travel, World, Pay

  Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.31, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

• Ah! the best righteousness of our man-of-war world seems but an unrealized ideal, after all; and those maxims which, in the hope of bringing about a Millennium, we busily teach to the heathen, we Christians ourselves disregard.

  Herman Melville

  Christian, War, Men

  Herman Melville (1850). “White-jacket; Or, The World in the Man-of-war”, p.378

• There was about all the Romans a heroic tone peculiar to ancient life. Their virtues were great and noble, and these virtues madethem great and noble. They possessed a natural majesty that was not put on and taken off at pleasure, as was that of certain eastern monarchs when they put on or took off their garments of Tyrian dye. It is hoped that this is not wholly lost from the world, although the sense of earthly vanity inculcated by Christianity may have swallowed it up in humility.

  Herman Melville

  Taken, Humility, Greatness

  Herman Melville (2001). “Tales, Poems, and Other Writings”

• Courage is the most common and vulgar of the virtues.

  Herman Melville

  Courage, Common, Virtue

  Herman Melville (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Herman Melville (Illustrated)”, p.1690, Delphi Classics

• To be a born American citizen seems a guarantee against pauperism; and this, perhaps, springs from the virtue of a vote.

  Herman Melville

  Spring, Citizens, Guarantees

  Herman Melville (2015). “Redburn's First Voyage: Works of Melville”, p.170, 谷月社

• Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.

  Herman Melville

  Selfish, Military, Men

  Herman Melville (1966). “Billy Budd”, p.14, Hayes Barton Press

• Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.

  Herman Melville

  Europe, Civilization, People

  Herman Melville (2012). “Typee: A Romance of the South Seas (Illustrated & Annotated Edition)”, p.211, Jazzybee Verlag

• The grand principles of virtue and honor, however they may be distorted by arbitrary codes, are the same the world over: and wherethese principles are concerned, the right or wrong of any action appears the same to the uncultivated as to the enlightened mind.

  Herman Melville

  Honor, Mind, Principles

  Herman Melville (1968). “Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life”, p.201, Northwestern University Press

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